Nights of the Week

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by IowaMike

I often work 4 days a week during basketball season. Of course unlike some guys I'll work any level if I'm free; Tues/Friday varsity games are fun and exciting but I enjoy the low key lower level games too.

If I work that many nights a week, it is because I am working 2 or 3 college games as well. Mostly 3 nights including Saturday is what is typical outside of a Christmas or Thanksgiving Tournament week, which can be every day and multiple games a day. And I can tell you that that is often too much over the course of a season if I worked every week with 4 games.

Originally Posted by IowaMike

Also there are plenty of guys available to work varsity games around here; the big problem is filling those lower level games because so many guys will only work varsity.

Not our problem here at all. Plenty of officials that can
work at all levels, but not as many qualified officials at the varsity level, but many think they are qualified when they are not.

Originally Posted by IowaMike

How are new guys supposed to learn if they never get a chance to work with veteran officials at the lower level? I'll always work some of those Jr High/Freshman games.

They can do the very same thing I did. I worked as many games as I could and often did not work with varsity officials in the process. I went to clinics, attended meetings and talked to my mentors. Sometimes the best way to learn is work with someone that is on a similar level you are so that you do not just defer or assume that the veteran will bail you out. Not to say that is not part of the process to work with veterans, but it should not be the default position for every lower level games. I know two young officials that can handle a game just fine if trained properly.

Peace

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by IowaMike

... I often work 4 days a week during basketball season. Of course unlike some guys I'll work any level if I'm free; ....

If I'm working 4 games in a week, hopefully it's because on Wednesday and Saturday I am working college games. I have no desire to work 5-6 days a week unless at least 3 of those dates are college games. I am definitely not taking off from work early to work JV or middle school games. It's nice to have 2 weekdays (usually Monday & Thursday ) to live a life outside of officiating.

For my entire 15 years of officiating I have had minor children in my house, and a majority of that time was as a single parent. "Free time" was time I could spend with my child(ren) or, until recently, my 2nd wife. I was also going to school for full-time for the last 3 years, which ends in October.

So let's not assume evil or arrogant intent when officials choose not to work every night there is a game or choose not to work lower levels.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

If I'm working 4 games in a week, hopefully it's because on Wednesday and Saturday I am working college games. I have no desire to work 5-6 days a week unless at least 3 of those dates are college games. I am definitely not taking off from work early to work JV or middle school games. It's nice to have 2 weekdays (usually Monday & Thursday ) to live a life outside of officiating.

For my entire 15 years of officiating I have had minor children in my house, and a majority of that time was as a single parent. "Free time" was time I could spend with my child(ren) or, until recently, my 2nd wife. I was also going to school for full-time for the last 3 years, which ends in October.

So let's not assume evil or arrogant intent when officials choose not to work every night there is a game or choose not to work lower levels.

Well said. It is far better have any decent (or great official) for 2 nights per week and no nights per week. Just because some like to do 500 games/year doesn't mean that is best for everyone.

[IowaMike]

Hey I get the not working too many nights a week; not saying I work 4 nights a week all season but there are occasional weeks I do. Two nights a week is my preference as well. A lot of those heavy weeks are when I pick up a game on late notice to help someone out. I really don't find Jr high games to be much of an imposition though; they start at 4:30 and the A and B games are usually done by 6. Home in time for dinner. Varsity games are more of a chore; I either have to work a girl/boy double in the smaller conferences and probably drive quite a distance or a single game in the big conferences that don't start until around 7:45 so I get home late. I agree working too much can burn you out; I've been at this for 16 years and stepped away from both basketball and baseball once because I was burned out from working too much.

I also agree there are a lot of ways to learn as a new official. I went and watched veteran officials work games on my own and did a lot of studying. However, some of the tips I got from veteran guys working those lower level games in my first few years were invaluable. I'm glad there were some of them still willing to work those games with a newbie like me.

[Mbilica]

For football, the only night of the week with no football here is Tuesday night, and that is the night of the association meeting. I work 50 or more football games every year and 15 and 13 year old sons generally come with me. They don't play a fall sport so it works out. I have trained both kids to film my games, so besides getting lots of bonding time, I get lots of film to look at (we don't have Hudl here).

When it comes to my family, we all sit down and start with the football schedule and then pick family days based on that and the school schedule. It is such a short season anyway, so lots of time remains for the family before and after.

As a basketball ref, I find the weekends are the perfect time to block out. Virtually all of the games I work are during the week between 4pm and 8pm, so I just make sure to have the family stuff over the weekend. However, my son plays basketball, so I block out all of his home game dates and only work 30 or so games a year for basketball.